If you make your way to the small town of Kouts, you'll be treated to some of the most delectable desserts you could imagine. Right along Main Street is a small, simple white building where the magic happens inside. It's called Desserts by Juliette and the whole venture began as a food blog in 2013.
The bakery owners, Susan and Daryl, have a daughter named Juliette, who had quit her job to help care for her grandmother and started making desserts to pass the time. It brought three generations of the family together as they sat at the table, savoring some of the sweet goodies that Juliette had made. The mother/daughter duo decided it would be fun to start a blog together and share some of the stunning creations that Juliette was making and Susan was photographing.
At one point, a blog post ended up ranking at the top in Google and they found there was a big demand for their specialty, Italian buttercream. It's a light and silky buttercream frosting that is less sweet than its traditional American counterpart. Italian buttercream is meringue-based and uses egg whites, granulated sugar and butter. They decided they'd give it a go at selling their cupcakes at local farmer's markets. It was quite a success and soon they were getting a lot of custom cake requests.
They had been working out of a commercial kitchen that required them to do baking late at night after they'd already put in a day at their full time jobs. Eventually, they were so busy that they knew that if they were to continue baking, they'd have to make the move to starting their own bakery. That happened in 2018. They first started operations just for custom cakes and pre-orders, but they soon opened a small shop in the front where people could walk in to pick up ready-to-go doughnuts, cupcakes, cake pops, scones, cookies, bars, cakes, hot chocolate bombs and other goodies. They're now open six days a week. The business has continued to flourish and they also supply desserts for some area restaurants, create wedding cakes and fulfill a variety of custom orders. They even carry keto-friendly and gluten-free desserts.
Desserts by Juliette is also known for creating treats with their specialty, Italian buttercream. It's a little more time consuming to make, but provides a light, silky consistency. It's also shelf stable and can be left out for a couple days. It also tends to harden upon refrigeration, so it's best to let it sit out for about an hour before you plan to eat it for the best results. It's something you should definitely try if you aren't familiar with it, but it might make you not want to go back to traditional American buttercream that is loaded with powdered sugar. They also offer some fun seasonal flavors and varieties, like a pumpkin patch cake, strawberry shortcake and a shamrock pistachio cake.
Desserts by Juliette
401 S. Main Street
Kouts
219-299-5824
